


Have to Stay

by lycanvirgin (phoenixzeal)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-05
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2017-12-31 14:10:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixzeal/pseuds/lycanvirgin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There once was a boy with wild, messy hair, wild eyes and a wild everything."</p><p>This is the story of a boy who feels lost in the world and how he has to create a world of his very own before he can finally find his home. </p><p>(A Teen Wolf/Where the Wild Things Are fusion.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have never read the book _Where the Wild Things Are_ , but I did watch the movie about a month ago and it inspired me so much that I spent a couple of hours after I'd watched it with writing the intro to this fic. I understand that the book is very important to a lot of people so hopefully I don't trample all over your childhood by writing this. 
> 
> This is in two parts but the second part is only an epilogue and it will be posted shortly once I've found time to edit it. The epilogue is very different in feel from the first part, it doesn't carry the same tone of childhood innocence so some of you might opt out of reading it, but I guess we'll see. 
> 
> Unfortunately I have no beta but I did my best to edit this before posting. If there are any remaining mistakes, it would be very kind of you to point them out to me so I can fix them.

There once was a boy with wild, messy hair, wild eyes and a wild everything. He ran through the forest as fast as his short legs could carry him and heard his father call his name, but he was running from his father and not towards him and hearing his name was not a good thing. 

The boy's mother was ill and in the hospital and no one had time for him anymore. His father worked and worked and left him with babysitters that rather talked on the phone with their friends than pay any attention to the boy. He couldn't sit still for even five minutes, though, and he'd run around in the house, filling it with mighty roars. In the end he almost always fell and broke some item that seemed more valuable than the boy could ever be. 

Finally his father had told the boy that he'd send him away across the country to live with his relatives that he'd never met before, because maybe then he'd stop being a hyperactive little monster. His father's breath had had that unpleasant smell and his face had been a blotchy red. 

So the boy had ran. Straight out through the back door and towards the forest where his mother had taken him to play before she got sick. She'd told him that it was a magical forest and that if he wished really hard, anything could happen. Now he wished and he heard his father stumble and fall, swearing loudly. The boy took the opportunity to create more distance between them and he found a big hole in the ground. He dove into the hole and crawled inside. 

It was darker than night in the hole, but he could crawl until his entire body was hidden and he still felt no wall. So he continued to crawl. He didn't know for how long he'd crawled until he finally saw some light break through the dark of the tunnel. It could have been hours or maybe just minutes. 

At last he saw an opening and had to blink against the light as he wriggled his way out, the front of his red hoodie and front of his jeans all covered in dirt. The boy made an effort to brush it off as he took in his surroundings. He was still in a forest but the trees seemed taller here and they weren't as lush, as if they'd grown old and the life slowly trickled out of them. The sky above the trees was dark but covered in stars and the moon shone brightly. However, that was not the source of light the boy had seen when he made his way out of the tunnel. 

Up ahead between the trees he could see a giant blazing fire sending smoke up to the sky. The crackling of wood burning and the roar of flames was loud to the boy, now that he realized that it wasn't silence crushing his ears. Over the sounds from the fire came people's voices. It sounded like they were upset. Even though the boy had had enough of people being upset, he decided to sneak closer and see what was going on. He reached a big clearing but he hid in the wood line, behind the trunk of a big fallen tree. His eyes were wide as he took in the sight of the burning house and the backs of the creatures that stood in front of it. 

They weren't people, not really, because even though they stood on two legs and talked like people, they were bigger and covered in fur. Pointed ears were on the top instead of on the sides of their heads like a human's would be, and there seemed to be claws on their furry fingers. These were the things they had in common, but most of them had different color fur covering their bodies and they had different colors and lengths of hair on their heads. They were discussing what they were going to do now that their home was burning down to the ground. 

"You were all going to leave anyway!" a new voice joined the conversation and it sounded angrier than the rest of them. 

The boy looked towards where the voice had come from and saw another one of the creatures and this one, unlike the others, had completely black fur and hair. It was throwing big branches and rocks at the burning house as if to add to the destruction. 

"Just like Scott, everyone always leaves," it continued and the boy decided that it was probably a male.

He also decided that he could understand exactly what the creature was feeling, though he didn't know who Scott was. Making a quick decision, he jumped out of his hiding place, grabbed more sticks and ran towards the house. He roared at the top of his lungs as he threw the sticks into the flames. This close the heat stung his skin and the smoke made him cough, but he grabbed more sticks and pinecones to throw them into the fire, roaring in between his coughs. He didn't stop until his voice was hoarse and he felt faint, as if he was going to fall over. 

Turning away from the burning house, he discovered that the creatures had formed a half circle around him. There were six of them and up close they were actually frightening, towering above him.

"Who are you?" one of them asked. She had pale brown fur and hair that was blonde and fell in beautiful curls. Her eyes were bright and golden over a snout that was full of sharp teeth that reminded the boy of a wolf. 

In fact, he was convinced that they were all werewolves. He thought that maybe it wouldn't be wise to give his real name to werewolves. Biting his lip, he tried to quickly figure out what to say.

"I'm Sti... les. Stiles."

"Are you lost, little one?" the werewolf with the long, blonde hair asked and her eyes were hungry and curious at once. 

"Who cares?" another werewolf asked. His fur was so pale that it was almost white and his short hair was a dark shade of blonde and pointed upwards in the front. Unlike the others', his eyes glowed blue. "Let's just eat him."

"You can't eat me!" Stiles, as the boy had named himself, squeaked. 

"Why not?"

"It's not polite to eat me before you've even introduced yourself." Stiles was proud of his logic and didn't quite understand why the two female werewolves began to laugh. 

"He's right, Jackson, we should introduce ourselves," the first werewolf said and curled a strand of her long hair around a clawed finger. "I'm Erica and the impolite one is Jackson." She then leaned against the tallest and broadest of the werewolves. He had dark brown fur and no hair that was distinguishable from the rest of it. "This is Boyd, he's mine."

"They're in love," said the other female in the group. She had black fur but her hair was long and brown. "I'm Cora, that's Isaac," she pointed at the tall but slender werewolf with white fur and blond curly hair. "And that's my brother, Derek."

Stiles finally looked at the angry one again and was a bit startled to see that he had red eyes that undeniably looked very angry and suspicious. However, his hair was a mess and pointed upwards in a way that was oddly adorable, though it didn't have the same effect for Jackson. 

"Can we eat him now?" Jackson asked and Stiles' gaze snapped back to him. 

"No, you can't eat me," Stiles said quickly. 

"Why shouldn't we?" Isaac asked, inspecting his claws. "All the introductions have been made."

"Well, because... because I have great powers and bad things will happen to you if you eat me."

"He does look awfully small and full of bones," Cora said. "We'd probably suffer from indigestion if we ate him."

"Yes, I'm very bony," Stiles agreed. "But I'm very powerful and though I'm small, back where I come from I performed magic and became a hero."

"Really, what kind of magic?" Erica asked excitedly. 

"Uh, the magic of protecting and destroying," Stiles said. "I protect good people and destroy the bad guys. I can make the bad guys' heads explode!"

"What do you think, Derek?" Boyd asked - the first words Stiles had heard him say.

"He does seem to have the power of words at least," Derek said. "And there's a lot of spark in him. He may be an emissary."

"An emissary, this little thing?" Isaac asked, gesturing at Stiles with a disdainful expression. "He doesn't even have fur yet."

"Being an emissary's got nothing to do with what someone looks like," Boyd said and Isaac looked somewhat chastised. 

"We're keeping him," Derek said in a tone that implied that his word was law, and nothing anyone said would be able to sway his decision.

Stiles, however, felt insulted. How dare Derek make such a decision without asking him first? He wasn't some kind of a thing to be kept.

"No," Stiles said and Derek gave him a sharp look. "I'm going to be the one to choose whether to stay or not. I'm the emissary."

"He's a feisty one," Erica cooed. "I like it."

"Shouldn't emissaries be calm and levelheaded, though?" Jackson asked confusedly. 

"I don't think that kind of thing works around Derek," Cora muttered. "Remember what happened to the last emissary?"

Stiles would've been nervous if he'd heard that last part, but he was too busy being nervous about Derek looming over him like a big, imposing and very dangerous fur ball. 

"You have to stay," Derek said darkly and suddenly Stiles thought that he understood everything Derek wasn't saying out loud. 

"I don't have to stay," Stiles said. "But I choose to. I'll be your emissary."

He still didn't know what an emissary actually was or what they did, but it sounded powerful and he liked that. Derek didn't look any happier after Stiles had revealed his choice, but he patted Stiles' shoulder and took a step back. Then his nostrils flared and he turned his head to look at the forest line. Stiles followed his gaze. At first he couldn't see anything but then another werewolf stepped into the clearing. He had fur the same shade as Stiles' favorite chocolate fudge and his black hair was floppy and went in all directions. His eyes glowed golden but they were really gentle and concerned. 

"What happened to the house?" he asked as he approached the group. 

"What does it look like, Scott?" Jackson said with an annoyed expression on his face. "Derek set it on fire."

"Why would you do that?" Scott looked at Derek with wide puppy eyes. 

Derek didn't reply, he just looked at the burning house and it was as if there were flames in his red eyes. 

"Scott, I thought you left," Isaac said and moved to stand at Scott's side, pressing up against him. "I thought you weren't coming back."

"Are you back for good?" Erica asked. 

Scott shrugged and gave Isaac a dopey smile. "I just wanted to check up on you guys."

"So you're going to leave again?" Derek asked sharply. 

"Well, I have my new friends to think about," Scott said and Derek stalked off, turning around the corner of the house and narrowly avoided getting his fur set on fire.

Stiles was hesitant about whether he should follow or if it would be better to leave Derek alone. He hesitated long enough for Scott to finally notice him.

"Hey, who's this?" Scott asked. 

"He's our new emissary," Cora said. 

"Derek said he is but I don't think we should trust him," Isaac said. 

"My name is Stiles," Stiles said, ignoring Isaac for now.

Scott nudged Isaac gently and grinned at Stiles. "Cool, my name's Scott. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Stiles was disarmed by Scott's smile and friendly manner and found himself giving a grin in return. 

"Of course our new emissary likes Scott," Jackson said and made a face. "Shows that he's just as much of an idiot as the rest of you. No surprise there."

"Shut up, Jackson," Erica said. "No one cares about what you think."

"Yeah, especially not now after that time you were a lizard," Isaac said.

Stiles was confused as the pack continued to squabble, mentioning a bunch of events that he hadn't been there for. Everything was very bewildering. Jackson had been a lizard; what did that mean? He stood there staring at them for a long moment and then looked at Scott who had moved to stand at his side. Scott had a sad look on his face, kind of like a kicked puppy.

"All they do is fight these days," Scott told Stiles and sighed. "It's why I left and found new friends. I tried to fix it but I couldn't."

"I'll fix it," Stiles said bravely. "Everyone will stop fighting and it'll be okay."

"Can you?" Scott asked, perking up a bit. "That'd be awesome."

"Isn't that what an emissary does?" Stiles still had no idea what an emissary actually was but he could pretend with the best of them. "Trust me."

"Alright, I'll trust you. But it's going to be hard for you to get everyone to agree with each other. Especially Derek, no one likes him."

Stiles felt as if something sharp stabbed through his heart at Scott's words. No one particularly seemed to like him either, not even himself. He thought that he could understand Derek a lot more than he'd like to.

"I'll be right back," Stiles said to Scott and then marched around the house. 

He found Derek sitting on a fallen tree, staring at the burning house with an unreadable expression. Stiles sat down close to Derek and studied his face. There was something sad in those red eyes, behind all of the anger. 

"Did you really set the house on fire?" Stiles asked. 

Derek was silent for a long moment and then he said, "I sent the others out hunting. I was tired so I stayed at home but I decided to make a fire in the fireplace. Cora doesn't like her meat raw so I wanted to do something nice for her. I went to my room to take a nap as I waited for them to come back. When I woke up the entire ground floor was on fire and I had to jump out through a window."

"But then it was an accident," Stiles said, surprised. "Why don't you tell them?"

"They'd still blame me so there's no point in explaining. It's easier this way."

"They're angry at you. What if they do leave if you don't explain what happened?"

"Maybe it's better that way." Derek sighed. "I'm not a good alpha. Everything is falling apart."

Stiles couldn't stand it anymore. He couldn't stand how Derek's words ripped him apart inside and forced tears into his eyes. It was unfair and painful and he wanted nothing to do with it, but he also wanted to hug Derek and never let go. Instead he lifted his face towards the sky and let out a howl. It was shrill and undoubtedly the howl of a small human boy, but it made him feel like a werewolf. Like a part of something bigger. 

"What are you doing?" Derek asked once Stiles' howl had tapered off. 

"Howling," Stiles said, giving Derek an obnoxious smile. "It makes me feel better."

Then he took a deep breath and howled again. After a moment, Derek tilted his head back and howled. It was a lot more melodic than Stiles would have expected it to be, haunting and sad and echoing in a way that made it sound almost hollow. Goosebumps covered Stiles' body and he looked at Derek in awe. Silence settled for a long moment after Derek's howl, but then a group of answering howls came from the other side of the house. 

Derek tilted his head back and howled together with his pack, their voices rising and falling in a way that created something unlike anything Stiles had ever heard before. Stiles laughed happily and tears streamed down his cheeks. Then he stretched out his arms, looked up at the sky and howled with the others until his throat hurt and his voice was hoarse. 

By the end of it, he was so tired that he almost fell right off the trunk of the fallen tree. Derek gathered him into his arms with a gentleness that was surprising, and carried him to the other side of the house. The pack, including Scott, was all cuddled up in a pile on the ground. Derek set down Stiles in the middle of it so he was surrounded by soft fur and warm bodies. 

It looked like Derek intended to leave once Stiles was comfortable but Stiles would have none of that. He tugged on Derek's arm until finally more hands joined in on the effort and succeeded in making him topple over and land on top of the rest of them. There was some grumbling from Jackson, but Stiles had clearly seen that he was one of the ones who'd helped in making Derek join them. Stiles was very happy with the pack around him and Derek on top of him like a big, furry blanket. Perhaps he could do something right after all, he thought moments before sleep claimed him.

***

Apparently Scott had decided to stay with the pack, at least for a little while. He made no indications of leaving the following day. The fire had stopped at some point while they'd slept and all that was left was a still smoking and sad looking ruin of a house. They stood in front of it and looked at it in silence for a moment, Derek and Stiles at the head of the group.

"So what are we going to do now?" Isaac asked but no one came forth with an answer.

Stiles looked at Derek who had a gloomy expression on his face despite Scott being there. He then looked at the rest of the pack who all looked lost or pissed off in various degrees, except for Boyd who looked calm and contemplative. 

"We should build a tree house," Stiles said decisively when no one had spoken for almost a minute. 

"A tree house?" Jackson repeated with a sneer. "That's the most stupid idea I've ever heard."

Stiles' expression fell but Scott grinned at him encouragingly and he found the will to expand on his idea. "We could build several tree houses in the biggest trees we can find and connect them all with bridges. That way we could all have our own space but visit each other all the time! And in the middle there should be a large tree house where we all can gather and eat together and tell each other stories and stuff."

As he spoke, more and more members of the pack seemed like they approved of the ideas and some, like Erica and Scott, actually looked excited about them. 

"What do you think, Derek?" Cora asked and everyone turned their head to look at their alpha.

Derek looked at Stiles with a considering expression. Stiles pleaded with his eyes and bounced on the spot, his body filled with more anxious energy than it could hold.

"Alright, let's do it," Derek said at last. 

Stiles let out a loud cheer and jumped at Derek, grabbing handfuls of his fur as he clung onto him with both arms and legs in a koala hug. Derek looked startled and like he wasn't at all sure what to do, but then he simply started walking into the woods with Stiles still clinging to him. 

"We're going to have to find trees with the perfect size and perfect distance between them," he said as his pack followed him. "Boyd, Erica, you two head west. Jackson, Isaac, go east. Cora, Scott, south. Stiles and I will head north. Howl if you find anything."

Everyone looked a bit stunned at getting such clear orders but they all confirmed that they'd understood in their own special ways - Erica was kind of loud and grinned dangerously, Jackson was reluctant, Scott seemed conflicted and so on. They all headed off in the pairs they'd been assigned and then there were only Derek and Stiles left. 

Stiles finally slid down from Derek to walk by his side and beamed. He looked around, noticing details about the trees and saw ants running around on the ground. Birds chirped and there was a refreshing wind rustling through the trees. Warm sunlight made its way through the natural ceiling formed by leaves and branches. It was a beautiful day to go walking in the woods. Though Stiles couldn't stay quiet for very long.

"How come I'm paired up with you? Not that I'm complaining, not at all. I'm just wondering. And I get why Boyd and Erica go together but why Jackson and Isaac? They seem to really dislike each other."

Derek sighed deeply and looked like he didn't want to deal with Stiles' questions, just like everyone Stiles had met since his mother became ill. It hurt because he'd thought he'd found someone like him, someone who could understand. He began dragging his feet and looked down at the ground, sulking.

"It's not that I mind your questions," Derek said haltingly after a moment and Stiles frowned at him. "I just don't know how to answer them. I'm not good with words and answers."

"Can't you try anyway?" Stiles asked. "I won't laugh if you get it wrong sometimes. It's alright. I can be your practice buddy." He gave Derek a bright smile. "You did well yesterday when you talked to me, you can do it again. That's what I'm here for."

Derek loosened up a bit after that. Stiles asked more questions and Derek did his best to answer them, even if some made him look increasingly frustrated. Especially when Stiles began asking things like "why is grass green?" and then demanded that Derek made up an answer since he didn't know the real one. 

According to Stiles, this was good practice because if Derek was forced to make up answers to difficult questions, it'd just make it easier for him to reply to the questions he actually knew the real answer to. Maybe that was backwards logic but it seemed to work at least a little bit. When Derek stopped taking everything quite as seriously and made up the most outrageous replies to Stiles' questions, he spoke more easily and even smiled once or twice. 

By the time they heard howling in the distance it was already far past noon, and Stiles had been allowed to jump onto Derek's back for a piggyback ride as he was too tired to walk. He'd chattered so much that his voice was hoarse because although Derek spoke more now, he was still not a man - or werewolf - of many words. 

"Those are Isaac and Jackson's howls," Derek said, his ears pointed and alert. "You better hold on tightly, Stiles, because we'll be going fast."

Derek turned in the direction of the howls. Stiles wrapped his arms around Derek as much as he could, grabbing handfuls of fur. No sooner had he done that then Derek crouched down on all fours and took off through the forest with mighty strides. The wind whistled by Stiles' ears and his eyes watered a bit from the speed. His gaze couldn't fix on anything in the environment as it went by too fast, so he ducked his head and buried his face in Derek's fur. 

Once, he'd gone to a fair with his parents where there had been a pony to ride and it had been a lot of fun. Sitting on Derek's back as he galloped through the forest was so much better. A shriek of delight bubbled its way through Stiles' entire body before it escaped his mouth and was muffled in Derek's fur. 

It took them quite a long time to reach Isaac and Jackson even with Derek's speed, but Stiles still thought it went by too quickly. Derek made him dismount at a little distance before they reached the others. Apparently it wasn't dignified for an alpha to give someone a ride like that, even if that someone was the emissary. They were the first to reach Isaac and Jackson, and Stiles could immediately tell why they'd howled. 

The trees were huge and had nice, sturdy branches at a perfect height. They were grouped together with a good amount of distance between each tree, and in the middle stood the tallest and thickest tree of them all. It was almost as if they'd sprung right out of Stiles' imagination and now all that was lacking were the tree houses themselves. 

"Well done, Isaac, Jackson," Derek said approvingly. 

Isaac looked incredibly happy at the praise and even Jackson looked satisfied, though he tried to hide it behind an air of nonchalant smugness. Eventually Cora and Scott reached the group and only a few minutes later Boyd and Erica showed up as well. Everyone approved of the choice of trees and Isaac looked even happier, if possible. Jackson's smile looked a lot more real than Stiles had seen before, not that that was saying much.

"We should all pick which tree we want for our house," Stiles said. "And if we can't agree and two or more people want the same tree, we should play rock-paper-scissors for it."

"What's that?" Cora asked. "Is it dangerous?"

Stiles shook his head. "No, not at all," he said. "It's kind of like a game. I'll show you."

That's how Stiles ended up playing rock-paper-scissors with the pack for almost an hour while Derek sat to the side, watching with a half amused expression. In the end when they finally picked which trees they wanted their houses in, no one picked the same (except for Boyd and Erica who wanted to live together) so it wasn't even necessary for them to be able to play rock-paper-scissors. It had been a lot of fun, though, and the pack seemed more at ease than it had been the previous day. Stiles thought that it wasn't that hard to be an emissary and he was doing an awesome job.

The rest of the day was spent gathering building materials. Stiles wasn't very good at lifting heavy things so he ended up trailing behind different members of the pack, asking them questions and in general talking their ears off. 

Some were more talkative than others, like Erica and Scott, while some liked to insult and threaten Stiles, like Cora and Jackson. Cora was noticeably friendlier about it than Jackson was, though, and Stiles really got along with her. She was like a slightly more laid back and talkative version of Derek. 

The ones that Stiles had a more difficult time getting along with, other than Jackson, were Boyd and Isaac. Boyd because he was very quiet and seemed long suffering when Stiles kept asking questions, and Isaac because he was kind of withdrawn and standoffish. Stiles figured he'd be good friends with all of them if he just gave it time, though, and he could be patient with those who weren't as forthcoming as the others. However, he refused to be friends with Jackson.

Days passed by and the pack continued to gather building materials and built ladders so they’d be able to get up in the trees. They decided to build the big tree house in the middle tree first and it’d act as their home while they constructed the other tree houses. Stiles wasn’t much help with doing any practical things, but he climbed up in the tree with the rest of them. 

There he sat on a branch or a piece of platform that was already made and told them stories. He told them stories that his mother had told him, or made up his own. In every one of the tales he made for himself, he was a big hero with great magical abilities. The pack was very impressed (though some of them would never admit it) and they enjoyed listening to Stiles while they worked. Never had he felt happier as when he sat high up in that tree, the wind ruffling his hair and the sun shining on his face.

One morning before the sun had even had a chance to rise above the horizon, Scott gently shook Stiles to wake him up. Stiles had managed to roll away from the pile of leaves on the ground they slept in while they waited for the first tree house to be finished. He looked around in confusion and then looked at Scott through half lidded eyes.

“What is it?” he asked at a normal speaking volume and Scott hushed him.

“I want you to come with me,” Scott whispered. “We’ve got a long way to go and we should leave now if we want to be back before sundown.”

“But the sun hasn’t even risen yet.” Stiles frowned in confusion and yawned widely. All he wanted to do was return to the pile of leaves and curl up at Derek’s side, pressing his face against his soft, black fur. 

“I told you we’ve got a long way to go.” Scott smiled and before Stiles could protest, he’d lifted Stiles into his arms and began walking with silent steps. “You can sleep for a while longer if you want, I’ll carry you.”

Stiles yawned again and closed his eyes. He trusted that Scott wouldn’t bring him anywhere bad, and if he wanted him to come with that badly then Stiles couldn’t exactly refuse. It would be alright to be away from the pack for just one day, wouldn’t it? With that thought Stiles drifted back to sleep and dreamed of being on a gently rocking boat in the middle of a vast ocean. 

When he woke up again, the sun was already pretty high on the sky. He blinked and squinted against the light, looking around. They weren’t in the woods anymore. Instead they were on a grassy plain that seemed to go on forever. The grass reached Scott’s knees and had a light green color unlike the grass in the woods that was a deeper green. Flowers in all kinds of colors and shapes grew among the grass and they had a strong smell that tickled Stiles’ nose. He grabbed the fur on Scott’s shoulder to pull himself up a bit and look back to where they’d come from, and he saw the wood line far in the distance. 

“You’re awake,” Scott said happily and set Stiles down on the ground, holding onto him until he was sure Stiles was steady on his feet. “Isn’t this place great?”

“Where are we?” Stiles asked. “Why are we here?”

“This is the grassy plain,” Scott said and Stiles thought that it was fairly obvious and still didn’t explain a thing. “This is where my friends live and where I stayed before you arrived and I decided to stay with you for a little while.”

Stiles looked around at the very open space and thought that it wasn’t a natural place for a werewolf to live. They were so at ease in the woods and so clearly at home that he really couldn’t imagine another habitat for them. However, if this was where Scott wanted to be, Stiles supposed that he couldn’t judge him. After all, he knew what it was like not to feel at home in your own home. 

“Where are your friends?” Stiles asked. “I can’t see them.”

“They must be hiding here somewhere,” Scott said and then began calling out for them. “Allison! Lydia!” He added a sound behind their names that sounded a bit like it started with the letter K and continued like a hissing snake. 

In fact, it sounded like when Stiles’ neighbor back home was trying to lure her cats out of hiding. That was the only reason why Stiles wasn’t completely surprised when the grass moved and two cats came to rub themselves against Scott’s legs. One of them had sleek black fur with paws that looked like they’d been dipped in white paint. The other one had long, orange fur interspersed with white, and big green eyes. It looked at Stiles with an expression that clearly said that he was nothing to her and he shouldn’t think that he was. The black cat paid no attention to Stiles at all, too busy to continue rubbing herself against Scott while purring loudly. 

“The black cat is Allison and the orange one is Lydia,” Scott said. “Allison, Lydia, meet Stiles. He’s the emissary of my old pack.”

Lydia stuck her nose up in the air and turned around, swishing her furry tail and showed Stiles her butt in a clear dismissal. Allison finally looked at Stiles with big, golden eyes and meowed at him.

“Uh, hi,” Stiles said and felt very awkward. He’d never had a habit to talk to cats as he was more of a dog person in the first place. “It’s nice to meet you?”

“You can pet them if you’d like,” Scott said and sat down, both cats hopping onto his lap. “They’re also really good to talk to about anything at all. If you’ve got any problems they give really good advice.”

Stiles looked at the cats with a doubtful expression. They didn’t seem like they could even talk at all. How could a werewolf want to leave their pack to go stay with a pair of cats that couldn’t speak? It was true that the pack had seemed to have a lot of problems before Stiles had shown up, but surely it couldn’t have been that bad. Though he supposed that he really wasn’t allowed to judge anyone for their life choices, and Scott seemed perfectly happy to sit there and pet the cats. He spoke to them in a low voice and asked them what they’d been doing while he’d been gone. Then he listened intently though Stiles couldn’t hear them make a sound at all. 

They spent a few hours there. Stiles ended up walking around picking flowers while Scott talked to Allison and Lydia. He thought that he could give a big bouquet to the rest of the pack later, and he made sure to pick at least one flower of every kind he could find. The day was very boring compared to the days he’d spent with the pack in the woods. He loved Scott like a brother and he was happy that Scott had wanted to introduce him to his friends, but it was obvious that they wanted very different things in their lives. That didn’t mean that they couldn’t still be friends, though, and maybe Stiles could try to explain this discovery to Derek. 

Stiles was filled with thoughts when he and Scott said goodbye to Allison and Lydia to travel home again. For the first bit Stiles walked, but then Scott had to pick him up and carry both him and the big bouquet of flowers. Was it really so terrible if Scott left for a little while as long as he came back now and then? Sometimes distance didn’t have to be so terrible. It didn’t mean that the love went away. Maybe it even meant that it grew stronger.

Scott and Stiles talked and laughed together on the journey home. They still had the same easy friendship they’d had from the start and they shared a sense of humor. Both of them were in high spirits when they returned to their home in progress just as the sun was beginning to set. Their good mood was shattered in pieces just like the foundation of the tree house the pack had worked so hard to build over the past few days. Scott almost dropped Stiles when they spotted the wreckage and Stiles had to let go of the bouquet to cling to Scott’s fur. The flowers spread over the ground together with bits and pieces of what once had been the floor of a tree house. 

“What happened?” Stiles asked, on the verge of tears.

“Derek happened,” Cora said gloomily. 

She and the rest of the pack were gathered at the bottom of the tree, their backs leaning against the trunk. Only Derek was nowhere to be seen. Stiles slid down from Scott and hissed when his feet connected with the ground, a splinter of wood digging into his skin. He carefully walked closer to the group and crouched down in front of them.

“Why would he do such a thing?”

“Isn’t it obvious, you dimwit?” Jackson said. “We woke up and you and Scott were gone. He was furious because you left. This is like the house all over again. You guys ruined everything.”

“But we didn’t leave,” Stiles managed to get out even though his chest felt tight, like it wouldn’t allow his lungs to fill with air. “We were just out on a walk for one day.”

“This isn’t our fault,” Scott said and his normally sunny disposition had turned cloudy. “I just wanted to introduce Stiles to my friends. It’s so typically Derek to overreact like this. He’s the one ruining everything. That’s why I left in the first place.”

Cora stood up in a sudden movement that made Stiles fall onto his back. She marched up to Scott and shoved him, growling right up in his face and snapped her fangs at him.

“If you’d just woken Derek up and asked him if you could be away for a day none of this would have happened,” she said angrily. “You always think that you’re the one in the right and you never stop to consider Derek’s feelings. Last time you left without saying anything you were gone for weeks. We didn’t even know if you’d come back at all. And this time you took Stiles with you. Don’t you understand how Derek could jump to the conclusion that you wouldn’t come back?”

Scott looked somewhat chastised. “But that doesn’t mean that he had the right to destroy something that we all made an effort to build together,” he said, refusing to back down entirely. “He can’t just keep destroying things like that if someone happens to hurt him. We all get hurt at times but that doesn’t give us the right to hurt others.”

“Scott’s right,” Isaac said. “Maybe Derek is the one who should leave if he can’t get along with the rest of us.”

“Derek is our alpha,” Erica said, growling at Isaac. “We can’t just make him leave, can we?”

A full scale argument broke out with increasingly raised voices and people talking over each other. Stiles couldn’t hear what anyone was saying anymore and he just lay there on the ground, staring up at where the platform for the tree house had been when he left with Scott that morning. All he could think was that he’d destroyed everything. If he hadn’t let Scott carry him away without saying anything, none of this would have happened. He should have stayed at Derek’s side and kept him calm, kept everything together. Maybe things would have been better if he’d never tried to meddle in the first place. Why had he thought that he could solve everyone’s problems when he couldn’t even solve his own?

The argument seemed to last for hours before everyone became too tired to continue to fight. That night everyone went to sleep in separate leaf piles. Stiles felt cold and lonely without having the warm bodies of the pack surround him. He missed his mom and dad. Running away from home had been a mistake.

***

It was dark and dreary when Stiles woke up the next morning. Heavy rain clouds made it almost impossible for any light to pierce through. In combination with the forest ceiling made by leaves and branches, it made the morning almost as dark as night had been. He got out of his leaf pile and looked around, hoping to see Derek but it seemed he had not returned. The rest of the pack sat huddled in a ring, talking in hushed voices. 

"Good morning," Stiles said as he approached them even though he didn't find the morning very good at all. 

They turned to look at him and some of them returned his greeting. Cora made some space between her and Boyd so Stiles could sit down and he gave her a grateful smile. Then he looked around at everyone who looked just as sad and defeated as he was feeling. He'd made a promise to himself before he fell asleep, though, so he smiled brightly and didn't show how sad he was. 

"What are you talking about?" he asked. 

"About what we're going to do now," Scott said. "It's the second time everyone's lost their home in a short time."

"Most of us think that we should leave," Erica said, sighing. "That Derek can stay here alone with his broken tree house."

"No, this is your place as much as it is Derek's," Stiles said. "Isaac and Jackson, weren't you happy when you found this place?"

"Yeah, but..."

"No buts," Stiles interrupted Isaac before he could continue. "If something is broken, you can't just let it stay broken. You've got to try to fix it and make it even better this time. You should make it so strong that Derek can't break it no matter how angry he gets. That way you'll always have a home and he can stay here too. Maybe if he realizes that he can't break it, that it's permanent, he'll stop being so angry all the time and he won't break things anymore."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Cora said and Stiles was a little bit insulted by how surprised she sounded. "I think we should do what Stiles suggested."

"Why should we listen to Stiles again?" Isaac asked. "It was his idea to make a tree house in the first place and look what happened to it. What if we can't make it unbreakable?"

"It's better to try than give up right away," Boyd said calmly before anyone (Jackson) could say anything in agreement with Isaac. "We need a home and this place is as good as any."

No one could really argue with that. Stiles suspected that no one wanted to argue with Boyd anyway because he was so big and strong, but they also clearly respected him for his intelligence and ability to calmly think things through. There was no point in wasting time. They began gathering the old materials that could still be used, and threw what was irreparably broken on a pile outside of the circle of trees that would be their home. 

Everyone worked in silence and covered their separate places. After the previous day's fight, none of them were particularly eager to talk to each other. Resentment and anger still lingered and all of them had to wonder if the others had really meant what they'd said. Stiles thought that they were probably still angry at him, too, but he wasn't going to let that deter him. He walked over to where Boyd and Erica were working with clearing up the area around their chosen tree. 

"Thank you for helping me convince the others to stay," Stiles said and Boyd gave him a small nod before he continued to work. "I know you don't talk much and I think that's a shame because you've clearly got a lot of good and smart things to say. But maybe you don't think people will listen if you do talk? Whatever the reason is, I don't think you should underestimate your importance in this pack. It's clear that Derek relies on you too, when he's around. Maybe people seem to prefer the strong, silent type but if you want to say something, you should say it no matter if you think people will listen or not."

Boyd just looked at Stiles for a long moment and then nodded slowly, a frown on his face. It didn't really matter if he'd take it seriously or not, Stiles just felt like he had to say something. He said a lot of things but he rarely said anything of true importance, because that way it might hurt less that people didn't listen. Now it was time to say the important things, though, before it was too late.

Stiles moved onto Erica who had probably been eavesdropping on what he'd said to Boyd. She stopped picking up rubble from the ground to look at him with a challenging expression on her face. 

"Are you going to impart important life advice on me as well?" she asked. "Because I'm doing just fine without it, thanks."

"You're much braver than I'll ever be," Stiles said, looking straight into Erica's eyes. "You're funny and smart and talking to you is a lot of fun. I know you feel lonely and betrayed by Derek sometimes because he doesn't pay you a lot of attention, but I think he believes you're too strong to need him. And I'm not saying that you do need him, clearly you can take care of yourself, but maybe you should let him know that you want to spend more time with him. I don't think he understands unless you tell him."

"I'll think about it," Erica said and ruffled Stiles' hair. "Maybe you're smarter than you look after all. At least you know that I'm strong enough to not need anyone." She grinned and then looked towards Boyd. "But sometimes it's so much better not to be alone."

Stiles smiled and gave Erica a quick hug before he walked over to Jackson's tree. Jackson glared at him and told him to go away, just in a way that was a lot less child friendly. He shrugged and walked to the next tree that was Isaac's. 

"I don't really understand you," Stiles said when Isaac looked at him questioningly. "I've tried to but I just don't. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, and I hope that we can be friends anyway. I guess sometimes you look at me like I'm going to steal Scott away from you but that's not possible. Scott is the kind of person who will always have a lot of friends but he won't forget about you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Isaac said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "You're ridiculous."

Stiles grinned. "I'm okay with that."

Scott was hanging upside down from a branch of his tree when Stiles reached him. He smiled dopily and gave Stiles a wave that Stiles returned. 

"Scott, what are you doing?" Stiles asked.

"I'm looking at things through a new perspective," Scott said. "I thought that it might help."

"I've never seen anyone take that expression literally before but alright, I guess that makes sense. You know I love you, right?"

Scott nodded. "I love you too, bro," he said seriously. "What are you doing, Stiles? I've seen you talk to everyone one by one. I know you're up to something but I can't figure out what."

"I'm just trying to apologize to everyone for causing trouble," Stiles said. "I'm just doing it in a different way than simply saying that I'm sorry. I've never liked saying those words. Maybe I need to get better at that. Anyway, I think you need to get better at understanding that not everyone shows that they care in the same way you do. Not everyone is openly affectionate or good at words. That doesn't mean that they don't care, it just means that they're not quite sure how to express it."

"Or it's like you and Cora trading insults to show each other that you care, right?"

"Exactly." Stiles smiled at Scott. "I'll see you later."

"See you later, Stiles."

As Stiles walked away he heard a thump as Scott fell out of the tree and landed on his head. It made him laugh and he was still laughing by the time he reached Cora's tree. She smiled and shook her head at him, throwing a pinecone at his head but with no more strength than he could easily dodge out of the way. He started gathering sticks together with her in silence. There was nothing he really felt the need to tell her because he thought that she already knew. Cora was also similar to him, he thought, and she understood the importance of family. 

"Do you know where Derek is?" Stiles asked when they'd been silent for a few minutes. "He wouldn't just leave, would he? That's not like him at all."

"I think he's feeling bad about how he reacted," Cora said. "He needs to be alone and think things through for a while. He'll probably come back soon."

"Isn't it a bit strange for him to leave when he's always reacting badly to the thought of anyone else leaving?"

"I think the difference is that he thinks that none of us want him here," Cora said sadly. "That we'd be better off if he did leave, because he's the reason why people fight and get hurt. He always takes all of the blame but that only makes him angrier and more likely to have an outburst."

It was a vicious cycle and one that Stiles was quite familiar with. He and Derek weren't exactly the same, but they had a lot of things in common when it came to how they dealt with difficult emotions. The truth was that they didn't deal with them at all, and then they came bursting out as a completely different feeling than they had been to begin with. A lot of times, or most of the time, that feeling was anger. If they didn't learn how to express their emotions with words or how to let them out little by little instead of all at once, how could they ever hope to be accepted and loved by other people? 

Stiles looked at Cora and thought about his interactions with the other members of the pack and he knew that they all loved Derek. They truly and deeply loved Derek as their alpha and as a person. Only Derek couldn't seem to realize that. They didn't know how to deal with his outbursts of anger but that didn't mean that they didn't love him. If it had, it wouldn't hurt them as much to see him that way. If Derek could just stop thinking that they'd all leave him because he was a terrible alpha and person, he'd understand that the only reason they had stayed was that they'd loved him all along. 

When Stiles put the sticks he'd gathered in a neat pile on the ground and started walking away, Cora grabbed his arm to stop him. She looked at him more knowingly than he'd like.

"If you leave without saying goodbye it's going to break his heart," Cora said, squeezing Stiles' arm so hard that it hurt and he winced. 

"If I do say goodbye it's going to break mine," he said quietly and blinked in an attempt to fend off the tears that threatened to spill over. "He already thinks I'm gone."

"And you think the others won't tell him that you came back for a while? Stiles, stay."

Stiles shook his head. "I left people behind. I have to go back home." He tried to pull his arm away from Cora's tight grip and she relented and let go. "I've already said goodbye to the others."

"Is it really a goodbye if you don't tell them that it is?" Cora asked, clearly unimpressed. "I think you're making a mistake, but I can't stop you from leaving. Take care of yourself, Stiles."

"You too," Stiles said, smiling weakly. "Take care of Derek for me."

Stiles walked through the forest in the direction of the burnt out ruin of the house and the hole in the ground that he'd crawled through. He wasn't exactly sure how he knew in which direction to go as he hadn't walked directly to the grouping of large trees from the house. It was just like a pull inside of his heart, tugging him in the right direction. Calling him home. The faces of his parents filled his mind and he walked faster and faster until he was running through the woods. He ran and he didn't stop until he reached the ruin of the house. 

There he stood in the clearing and stared at the blackened ruins. He could still feel the tug in his heart that told him that he had to go home and this wasn't it, but he needed a moment. It felt like years had passed since he'd first laid his eyes on the clearing and the burning house. Since he'd met Derek and Scott and the others. At the same time it felt like it was only yesterday. He'd been angry and sad when he arrived and he'd been angry and sad a few times after that, but he knew he'd remember his time with the pack as happy. 

He turned away from the house and walked in the direction of the hole in the ground, when a sound made him stop and hesitate. Someone was walking through the woods close by. It didn't surprise him when the entire pack, except for Derek, stepped into the clearing and gathered in front of him.

"Did you really think we were going to let you leave without saying goodbye?" Erica asked. "Or did you just get lost and need us to lead you back again?"

"I still vote we should eat him," Jackson said. "That way he'll never leave."

"We love you," Cora said. 

"The introductions were made long ago," Isaac said. "And now we can eat you and make you stay."

"What will Derek think of this?" Boyd asked. 

"Who are you to leave without saying goodbye?" Scott asked, looking at Stiles with sad puppy eyes. 

Tears were streaming down Stiles' cheeks as he looked at each one of them in turn. They were all his friends and he loved them. He loved them with all of his heart but he knew he was doing the right thing. His family needed him and he wasn't a werewolf like the pack. No matter how much he wished it were so, it could never be and he didn't belong. Sometimes goodbyes were necessary even though he hated them with his entire being.

As he stood there and looked at the pack and they stood there looking at him, someone else walked into the clearing. Stiles turned his head and looked straight into the angry eyes of his friend that he'd felt so connected to from the very first moment. He could practically feel the pain radiating from Derek but he knew he couldn't give in.

"You have to stay," Derek said, his voice broken and choked and it tore Stiles to pieces more effectively than sharp claws ever could. 

"I don't have to stay," Stiles said, swallowing heavily. "And I choose to go."

Before Derek could say or do anything to stop him, Stiles turned around again and ran towards the tunnel. He knew that the space would be too small for Derek to follow him and he quickly crawled far enough that no one would be able to reach him. Once he'd done that, he paused for a moment to catch his breath and tried to will his tears to stop falling. They made it difficult for him to breathe and air was already hard to get in the narrow space. 

After a moment of silence so heavy that it made Stiles feel as if he'd gone deaf, a hauntingly sad howl pierced through the quiet. It was easy to recognize as Derek's and it renewed Stiles' urge to cry but he pulled himself together and took a deep breath. Then he howled together with Derek, letting their goodbye be something without words. Stiles hoped that Derek would understand. He howled until he couldn't anymore, coughing and gasping for breath. 

When he started crawling again, the rest of the pack howled with Derek. The sounds followed Stiles all the way to the other side of the tunnel and tapered out only when he crawled outside. He got to his feet and looked around. It was dark but the trees looked familiar and he knew that this is where he'd taken walks and played with his mother.

Once again Stiles was running, only this time he was running towards his home instead of from it. He ran as fast as his short legs could carry him and after only a minute of running, he could hear his father calling his name. 

"Dad!" he yelled as loudly as he could even though he was out of breath. "Dad! I'm here!"

Stiles practically collided with his father's legs but then he was lifted up and held tightly. His dad repeated his name over and over again, and it sounded weird to him now that he was so used to being called Stiles. 

"My name is Stiles now," he said, his voice muffled as his face was pressed against his dad's shoulder. 

"Stiles?" his dad repeated bemusedly. "Alright, Stiles, where have you been? I've been looking for you for hours. I called everyone we know to ask them to look for you too. Now I'll have to call them all and tell them that I've found you. Do you understand how worried I've been?" Finally he stopped ranting and sighed heavily. "Never mind, we can talk about that later. I'm just glad you're safe, son."

He carried Stiles through the woods towards their home. Stiles was exhausted and dozed off only to wake up when he'd been undressed and laid in bed. He blinked sleepily and looked up at his father, seeing how tired and sad he looked. 

"Dad? I'll go live with those people on the other side of the country," Stiles said through a yawn. "Because no matter the distance, we can still love each other."

His father looked completely stunned for a moment and then his expression became filled with regret. "I'm not going to send you away, kiddo," he said gently. "Tomorrow we're going to go visit your mom in the hospital together. We'll go visit her every day."

"Really?" Stiles asked, his eyes wide and hopeful. "I'll get to see mom every day?"

"Yeah, kiddo, your mom needs you. I need you. We'll get through this together, all three of us."

Warmth filled Stiles' chest and he smiled happily, closing his eyes. Everything wasn't magically solved and Stiles and his dad didn't stop making mistakes, but they did better. Stiles never ran away again and his father never threatened to send him away. Sometimes he couldn't sit still and at times he broke things on accident, but it was okay because he was more valuable to his father than silly old possessions. Neither of them were as angry anymore and a babysitter never set a foot inside of their house again.


	2. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did say I would post the epilogue shortly. Now there are some things you should know for the epilogue that I would've added in the tags, but it didn't feel right because it's such a small part of the fic so it would have felt like tricking people.
> 
> Brief mentions of the following pairings: Stiles/Danny, Stiles/Heather, Stiles/others. Allison/Isaac.   
> Endgame pairings: Boyd/Erica, Allison/Scott, Lydia/Jackson (though I guess this is up to your own interpretations) and finally Derek/Stiles.
> 
> Warnings: canonical character death (Claudia Stilinski).

Stiles' mother passed away a couple of weeks before he was to start third grade. It was expected and completely unexpected at the same time in that way that death is sometimes. No one can ever prepare themselves for what they will feel when such a crucial person is gone from their life, never to come back. 

Things might have been far worse if Stiles hadn't gone back to school so soon afterwards. Third grade brought with it distractions and stuff to focus on besides the vast emptiness in his heart. Amongst those distractions were two new classmates. He already knew the rest of the class (and they knew and didn't particularly like him), but these two were completely new. 

Scott McCall was a boy with floppy black hair, brown puppy eyes and a dopey smile. Lydia Martin was a beautiful girl with red hair and large green eyes. Somewhere inside of the darkness of Stiles' heart a spark was ignited. Warmth flooded back into his life like a crackling fire under a dark sky. Scott quickly became Stiles' best friend in the entire world and Lydia was someone to admire from afar.

Years passed by and Stiles and Scott stuck together through both sad and happy times. They had their falling outs but they were quickly forgotten in favor of video game nights and sleepovers. Lydia remained someone very much untouchable, even though Stiles seemed to be the only one to admire her for her intelligence instead of just her beauty.

The beginning of high school would have been a nerve-wracking experience if he hadn't had Scott at his side as usual. High school brought a lot of change that Stiles could never have expected. He met new people. 

Allison was beautiful and just as friendly as Scott, though for a long time they only had eyes for each other. Luckily Allison became friends with Lydia which meant that Lydia was now Stiles' friend too. The only downside to that was that wherever Lydia went, her boyfriend Jackson also came along. Jackson would always be a jerk. 

For a couple of years it was the five of them together with the added bonus of Danny, Jackson's best friend. Without Danny, Stiles would have probably been the fifth wheel forever. They got off to a rocky start but eventually Danny warmed up to Stiles and then he warmed up to him some more. (It was better than the brief fiasco with his childhood friend Heather; apparently it just felt strange to make out with someone you'd previously seen in diapers.)

Boyd and Erica were added to their gang in junior year of high school. Previously they'd both drifted in the background of the student crowd, never noticed by anyone until they noticed each other. With the strength and support and love that quickly formed between the two of them, they shone brighter than anyone else and finally others noticed them as well. They were content with just having each other but somehow Stiles managed to bring them into his fold. 

Isaac came along during senior year. His father was killed in a car accident, and somehow Isaac ended up living together with Scott and Scott's mother while he figured out what to do. He was already eighteen years old but he had no family left. Stiles couldn't even imagine what it was like to have to take complete responsibility of everything at such a young age. The fact that Isaac stayed with Scott for a while automatically made him a part of the gang. 

It felt right to Stiles with all of them there. He'd found his home in the people he surrounded himself with, and yet something was still missing. It was more than the empty space that his mother had left behind and he'd carry with him forever. 

There was something niggling at the back of his mind, telling him that there was something that he'd forgotten. Most of the time it was pretty easy to ignore, but at night when he was alone and not surrounded by his friends' voices there was an ache in his heart. A silent howl that reverberated through his entire body and made it almost impossible to sleep.

High school ended and everyone went off to do their own thing, whether that was to go to college or to get a job somewhere. Of course they still stayed in touch but it wasn't quite the same when they weren't all in the same place. That was a part of growing up, though, and Stiles thought that most of them would return to Beacon Hills when they had graduated.

Stiles and Danny ended up on the opposite ends of the country, which was a very definite end to their on again off again high school relationship. They'd always been so much better as friends than anything else and Danny had a slew of other boyfriends in their off phases. Sometimes Stiles would fall for those dimples even though he knew that he shouldn't because it ended badly every time. Once even Jackson had called them out for being assholes and that had been a new low point in Stiles' life.

College was different to anything else that Stiles had experienced thus far. It was turbulent, and it took him almost a year to figure out how to manage the workload he'd taken upon himself. Then again, it hadn't helped that he'd also tried out the new freedom of living away from home by partying almost every week. He was a wreck when he visited home for the holidays and his father had looked at him with that special disapproving gaze. It made him ashamed enough that he didn't party for at least a couple of weeks after he returned to college.

Partying lost its allure after that first year, and he really wasn't a fan of the random hookups he almost always managed to get when he was drunk. The silent howl continued at night when he was alone and he longed for something. He didn't know what exactly, but he wanted it to be something real. 

Stiles spent the last years of college as a perfect student. Well, almost a perfect student. He managed to get into arguments with his professors a couple of times when he interrupted a lecture because there was wrong information being told. It wasn't his fault that they hadn't done their research properly, and he just wanted to help. They really weren't as thankful as they should have been.

Coming home after graduating from college was kind of an anticlimactic experience. Stiles had always had this image in his head that he would return triumphantly, and people would cheer and congratulate him on being an upstanding citizen. He might have been around ten years old when he created that image, but he’d still expected something more. 

Instead he was kind of lost and confused and he had no real idea what he wanted to do with his life. He’d always thought that he’d figure it out eventually. At first he’d thought that he would figure it out in high school. Then he’d thought that he’d figure it out in college. Now he still had no clue and ended up getting a job at a coffee shop. He didn’t even drink coffee because it did not mesh well at all with his ADHD. A college graduate working at a coffee shop. He was practically a walking cliché at this point.

At least moving back to Beacon Hills brought him back together with some of the gang. Scott had moved back to work at the animal clinic he’d worked part time at while they were in high school, only this time it was as a veterinarian. He and Allison had broken up before college, and she’d had a thing with Isaac for a while which had been weird, but now it seemed that they might get back together again. Allison had followed in her father’s footsteps and worked for his company that sold firearms to the law enforcement. 

Boyd and Erica never left Beacon Hills in the first place. Erica was the proud owner of a sex shop. There had been a distinct lack of them in their town previously and apparently business was really good. Sometimes Stiles kind of wished that he’d been the one to come up with that idea. Boyd worked as a fireman and probably rescued babies and kittens from burning houses on a regular basis. At least that was how Stiles imagined it but he might have quite a romanticized image of what it was like to be a fireman. 

Isaac worked as an undertaker which was kind of creepy. Not that there was anything wrong with the profession itself, but Stiles had always found Isaac slightly creepy somehow. The added image of Isaac as an undertaker was something that didn’t really help with that opinion. It was not at all because Stiles was slightly jealous of how close Isaac was to Scott. Well, maybe a little bit. 

Only Lydia, Jackson and Danny hadn’t returned to Beacon Hills. Lydia was still at university, doing some kind of research that even Stiles couldn’t understand no matter how much she tried to explain. Though honestly she never did explain it all that much as she expected everyone to know what she was talking about the first time around or it wasn’t worth her time. Jackson was in London and Stiles really didn’t care that much about what he was doing there. Danny had turned into a globetrotter and now and then Stiles got a postcard from some far away location.

It seemed like everyone except for Stiles had figured out what they wanted to do with their lives. He’d considered law enforcement more than once. Becoming a deputy would be really cool. At the same time he didn’t want to just follow in his father’s footsteps right away. There had to be something for him out in the world. He should go somewhere and explore things before he settled down in Beacon Hills forever, and yet there was something that stopped him. It wasn’t just his father’s kind of shaky health, but something deep within Stiles that told him that he shouldn’t leave.

One Sunday morning he sat at the kitchen table, slowly eating his breakfast although it was already past noon. He had a day off from work and he didn’t particularly feel like doing anything. His father walked into the kitchen and paused at the doorway, just looking at him in silence for a long moment. 

“What?” Stiles asked, crumbs flying all over the table as he still had a piece of toast in his mouth.

“Do I still have to tell you not to talk with food in your mouth?” his father asked, shaking his head. “I was just remembering the night when I thought I’d almost lost you. I don’t know if you remember that day, but I said something to you that I regret to this day and you ran off into the woods and was gone for hours. I never did find out where you’d been all that time.”

Stiles frowned because now that his dad said something, he did have vague memories of running away once. He didn’t remember what he’d done, just running into the forest and then running back later on. The memory of those hours eluded him but somehow he felt that it had been really important.

“I haven’t taken a walk in those woods for ages,” Stiles said. “I think I’m going to do that today.”

“Sounds good to me, son.”

About an hour later when Stiles had finished his breakfast, taken a shower and gotten dressed, he headed for the forest. He probably hadn’t gone there since before his mother’s death. It felt like it had been a sacred place for the two of them where they’d played for hours and she’d told him stories. Going there after had death had seemed wrong somehow, like it would ruin the magic. 

Now he felt kind of silly for thinking that way, as he walked along a narrow path. He took deep breaths and felt the special forest smells of pine needles and moss and dirt. The sun filtered through the leaves and the branches and he could hear birds chirping. It felt just as magical as it had when he was a kid and it brought back memories of his mother. He didn’t know for how long he’d been walking when a voice brought him out of his nostalgia.

“This is private property.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” Stiles said before he turned around and his breath was practically stolen from him. 

A few steps away stood the most attractive man he’d ever laid eyes on. There was a small, teasing smirk on his face and his eyes managed to be mischievous and slightly sad at the same time. They were also gorgeous which seemed to be the general theme of his entire being. That wasn’t even what Stiles was floored by, however, because it also felt like he’d known the man for years. Which was impossible because he was pretty sure that he’d remember this guy if he’d seen him before. 

“I’m Derek Hale,” the man said, taking a step closer and stretched out his hand for Stiles to take. 

Stiles shook Derek’s hand and if he lingered for a moment too long, he didn’t think anyone could blame him. Up close, Derek’s eyes reminded him even more of someone but the memory slipped away from Stiles before he could tell who it was. 

“I’m Stiles,” Stiles said after being silent a moment too long. “Stiles Stilinski. I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“Me and my sister Cora just moved into the big house on the preserve,” Derek said. “We haven’t been here for long.”

“Oh, that would explain it then. I’ve lived here my entire life. Well, almost. I did go away for college but now I’m back, obviously. I wasn’t sure if I’m going to stay here because I kind of want to go see the world but I don’t know. It’s a pretty boring place but the people here make it worth it.”

“So I guess you’ll have to stay, right?” Derek asked. 

“I don’t have to stay, but I choose to.”

They looked into each other’s eyes and it felt like an echo of something that had happened a long time ago. Stiles was going to stay because this was where he truly belonged. He had his father, a group of friends and he knew that it was inevitable that he’d become a deputy eventually. On top of all of those things, he now had something he’d thought he’d lost long ago. The silent howl inside of him grew stronger and was reflected by the expression on Derek’s face. Except this time the howl wasn’t one of sorrow, but one of happiness and it would never cease to sing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is the happiest one I've written in ages, which is kind of weird since it is quite filled with angst but hey, actually clearly happy ending. I'm so proud of myself. 
> 
> As always I can be found on [tumblr](http://lycanvirgin.tumblr.com).

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! As I said, the epilogue will be posted shortly. Meanwhile, you can find me on [tumblr](http://lycanvirgin.tumblr.com).


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